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EXTRACTS 



PROM THE 



REPORT or PRESIDENT FINLEY, 

f , 30TH OF MARCH 1S47, 

^y X SHOWING 

'' THE COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN THE COLLEGE; 

AND 

'THE REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE TRUSTEES! 



STATE OF THE INSTITUTION, THE NECESSITY OF AI I^ITIOi'AL •] 
PSOrESSORSHIPS, AND THE MEASURES. PRO I-QSEL- 

FOR EirFECTLNG THAT OBJE'JT, &c. ; 

MAY 1847. 



CHARLESTON, S. C. 

MILLER & BROWNE, NO. 4 BROAD-STREET, 
"*' City Job Printers. 

1847. 






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THE COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON. 

JUNE 1st, 1847. 



At a meeting of the Trustees of this Institution on 
Thursday, the 27th ultimo, the following resolution was 
adopted, viz : 

" Resolved, That with a view to afford information to the 
public of the state of the College, and the course of instruc- 
tion which it affords, so much of the report of Wm. Peron- 
NEAU FiNLEY Esq., President, subrhitted to the Trustees at 
their last meeting as will give this information, be published." 

In compliance with this resolution, the following extracts 
are made from the Report of President Finley, on the con- 
dition and operation of the Institution during the collegiate 
year, which ended on 30th March last — by him submitted 
in conformity with a regulation of the Board, requiring 
annual reports from the President and Professors. 

The Report of the Committee of the Board that 
recommended the resolution, under which these extracts 
are pubHshed — presents such views of the benefits and 
prospects of the College and of the effort now making to 
extend these benefits that it is deemed proper to publish that 
Report also. 

Several Resolutions, accompanied the Report, and were 
unanimously passed. 

One of these approved and adopted the effort to raise 
funds by subscription, to establish an additional Professor- 
ship. Another directed the appointment of a Committee to 
take measures for carrying out that object. To the latter 
Resolution, (at page 11) attention is particularly requested. 

M. KING, 

Vice Pres. of the Board and CKm of Stand. Com. 



Extracts from the Report of Mr. Fiuley. 

" There are at present in this Institution four Departments 
of Instruction which may be thus classified, viz : 

1st. The Literary, which is under the charge of the 
President : 

2d. The Scientific, under the charge of Professor Gibbes : 

3d. The Classical, under the charge of Professor Hawkes- 
worth : 

4th. The Mathematical, under the charge of Professor 
Miles : 

It must not however be understood, that the discrimination 
indicated by the above classification is perfectly accurate, 
as, with the exception of the 3d (Prof: Hawkesworth's,) 
these several Departments in some instances run into each 
other. 

The first of the above Departments embraced during 
the past collegiate year, the instruction of the Senior, 
Junior, and Sophomore Classes in the following course of 
studies, viz :— Of the Senior Class in the higher principles . 
of Rhetoric, (Whately), Political Economy, (Waylani), 
and the Evidences of the Christian Religion, (Paley) ; Of 
the Junior Class in the Elements of Criticism, (Kames), 
Moral and Pohtical Philosophy, (Paley), and Intellectual 
Philosophy, (Upham) ; Of the Sophomore Class in Modern 
History, (Tytler) concluded, Logic, (Parker on the Basis of 
Whately), and the Elements of Criticism and Rhetoric, 
(Blair). The regular exercises of all these Classes in 
English Composition, and of the Senior and Junior in Elocu- 
tion, are also included in the course which belongs to this 
Department. 

The Scientific Department embraced the instruction 
of the Senior, and Junior Classes in the following course, 
viz : — Of the Senior Class in Natural Philosophy, (OhiiT 
sted's) under the heads, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Acous- 
tics, Optics, and Magnetism ; and Chemistry, (Fownes') 



5 

■ander the heads, Heat, Electricity, Galvanism, and Inor- 
ganic Chemistry, accompanied by lectures and illustrated 
by experiments : of the Junior Class in Astronomy, (Olm- 
sted), under the heads, Descriptive Astronomy, Nautical 
Astronomy, and Dialing ; and Mechanics, (Olmsted), under 
the heads, Elementary Mechanics and Mechanism of the 
Heavens, accompanied by lectures on select subjects in 
Mathematics, and also in certain branches of Mechanical 
Philosophy. 

The Classical Department embraced the instruction of the 
Senior, Junior, Sophomore and Freshman Classes in the 
following course, viz : Of the Senior Class, which attended 
this Department weekly, in the Agricola and Germany of 
Tacitus : Of the Junior Class, in Latin, several of the 
Satires of Juvenal, and two books of the History of Taci- 
tus; and in Greek, Selections from the Graeca Majora, 
including Sophocles and Euripides : Of the Sophomore 
Class in Latin, the Satires of Horace and a portion of Cicero 
de Officiis ; and in Greek Selections from the Graeca 
Majora, and three books of Homer's Iliad : Of the Fresh- 
man Class, in Latin, Livy and three books of the odes of 
Horace, and in Greek, three books of the Anabasis of Xeno- 
phon. This Class was also exercised in Latin Prosody, 
with special reference to the metres of Horace, and also in 
Latin Prose Composition and in Grecian and Roman Anti- 
quities. 

The Mathematical Department embraced the instruction 
of the Sophomore and Freshman Classes in the following- 
course, viz : Of the Sophomore Class in Legendre's Geome- 
try, Plane and Sperical Trigonometry, Davies' Elements of 
Surveying and Navigation, and in Young's Algebra through 
the Binomial Theorem, Logarithms and Series ; of the Fresh- 
man Class in the first six books of Legendre's Geometry, 
and in Young's Algebra through the Chapter on Surds. In 
Tytler's History this Class has gone through the whole of 



Ancient History, and as far in Modern History as the Refor- 
mation — the Sophomore and Freshman Classes have also 
been instructed in Elocution by Prof. Miles. 

" The President further states, that since the last Report, 
the Faculty, — in accordance with the usage of the English 
Universities, adopted by several of the American Colleges — 
have introduced the practice of written as well as oral exam- 
inations of the several classes. This is designed to obviate 
the embarrassment to which some are liable when examined 
orally, and consists, in propounding to the Class at the 
Examination, certain questions in writing, to which written 
answers must be given within a prescribed time ; the whole 
being so conducted in the presence of the Faculty, as to 
ensure, that the Student will have to depend on his own 
resources, and that the extent of his attainments will be 
satisfactorily tested. The result has so far been highly 
gratifying." 



Report of the Committee of the Board of Trustees. 

To THE Trustees of the College of Charleston : 

The Committee to whom the Reports of the President 
and Professors of the College were referred at our last 
meeting, beg leave to Report : 

That these several papers afford very gratifying informa- 
tion respecting the course of study pursued in the institution, 
and the discipUne and general good order which prevail in 
it. And this favorable view of the College, in both particu- 
lars, received ample confirmation in the late semi-annual 
examinations. These examinations were both written and 
oral, were full, minute and strict ; and evinced at once the 
desire of the Faculty to show the value of the institution by 
its fruits, and the readiness of the students generally to meet 
the scrutiny. 

It is therefore a subject of deep regret, that the opportuni- 
ties thus afforded are enjoyed by so small a number of stu- 
dents as the President reports. The whole number connected 
with the College during the year which ended in March last, 
was 46. The largest number at any one time 40, and the 
lowest 38. Yet the course of study is substantially the same 
as that pursued in the Colleges generally of our country. 
The Professors are gentlemen of high character and 
acknowledged ability ; and to the people of Charleston, and 
probably to many others, the institution offers the desirable 
combination of liberal education with the influences and 
economy of home. Its location in a large city has given it 
a peculiar organization, which carries with it these advan- 
tages. The students do not reside in the College, and only 
repair to it for study and recitation. To residents, therefore, 
it offers an economy which brings the benefit within the 
means of a very large proportion of our community ; whilst 
to all who, from moral considerations, are unwilling that 
their sons should go abroad at the early and critical period 
embraced by the Collegiate term, it offers an exemption from 
the risks they apprehend and the anxieties they would 
otherwise incur. 

Comparing, then, these strong inducements to favour our 
College, with the limited patronage it enjoys, your Commit- 
tee cannot doubt that one cause is the want of information 
in our community of the true state of the institution, and the 



advantages it really affords. Your Committee therefore 
recommend that an effort be made to bring the claims of the 
institution more prominently before the public, either by an 
address from the Board, or by the publication, in whole or 
in part, of the late rejDortof the President. 

The reports of the other Professors are full and satisfac- 
tory statements of the course of study in their several 
departments. That of the President affords a general view 
of the studies of the College clearly and plainly stated, with 
suggestions respecting the measures he deems important to 
its prosperity. 

The Committee concur with the President in the opinion 
he expresses, that a prominent cause of the limited number 
of students, is a very prevalent impression that from the 
small number of Professors, the course of study must be 
more limited than that of other Colleges in this country, and 
the instruction less thorough than elsewhere. Although this 
impression, we feel assured is erroneous, as he states it to 
be ; we cannot doubt that our professors are heavily taxed 
in the variety of matters which their course of instruction 
embraces, and that the present arrangements would not be 
compatible with any considerable increase in the number of 
students. It therefore seems indispensable to the growth of 
the College that provision should be made for increasing the 
number of professors. If the College is to prosper, this 
must be done sooner or later. The common and reasonable 
expectation on this subject, ought, if possible, to be met. 
The public will, for the most part, judge of the opportunities 
of instruction in a College by the number, as well as by the 
reputation of its professors. The President, therefore, very 
justly recommends to the Board as a matter of primary 
importance, the plan of establishing additional professorships 
whenever the requisite means can be obtained. This sub- 
ject is one upon which our Board have long been anxious ; 
one which a sense of its importance is constantly presenting. 
It formed a principal object of our resolutions of November 
last. But the apphcation to the Legislature which those 
resolutions authorized, for means to estabhsh two professor- 
ships, although liberally and nobly sustained by gentle- 
men from all parts of the State, proved eventually unsuc- 
cessful. 

We trust, indeed, that the day is not distant, when the 
claims of this institution, to the fostering aid of the State, 



will be recognized and met. But, in the mean time, the 
College and the community suffer under the want ot" the 
desired provision. The expediency, therefore, of an effort, 
to raise bv private subscription a fund for the support of one 
or more professorships, was under consideration in your 
Committee, when they had the happiness to find that an old 
and valued friend of the College,'under a sense of the great 
importance of the measure, had determined to commence, 
in concert with several others, who thought with him on the 
subject, a movement towards this end. They fell that if 
commenced, it would find favor. Accordingly within a few 
days past, a paper has been enclosed to W. P. Finley, Esq., 
the President of the Faculty, containing a proposition for 
raising a sum not less than $20,000 lor the establishment of 
a professorship ; and subscribed by Nathaniel Heyward, 
Esq., for $2,000; and by M. King, W. Aiken and James 
Adger, Esquires, each for SI, 000. To these, the names of 
several friends of the College, one of them, a gentleman of 
Edisto Island, have since been added for $500, each. 

Mr. Finley placed the paper in the hands of your Com- 
mittee to be presented to the Board ; and they have now 
the pleasure of submitting it, respectfully recommending 
that early measures be taken for obtaining the subscriptions 
of others, and thus effecting the object so wisely and hber- 
ally contemplated by the gentleman above named. Your 
Committee feel great confidence that the proposition will 
be favorably received by the public, and Hberally sus- 
tained. 

In connexion with the expediency and the means of 
increasing the number of professorships, your Committee 
beg leave to call the attertion of the Board to the fund 
estabhshed by the ordinance of the City Council of 6th May, 
1839. This ordinance appropriates for 99 years the annual 
sum of $1,000, to form a peimanentand accumulating fund 
for the further endowment of the College, to be called " The 
City College Fund.'' The interest of this fund is not appli- 
cable to the uses of the College until it amount to $500 per 
year. But as the time has arrived, or is at hand, when this 
interest may be used, it is desirable that the principal be 
now funded according to the provisions of the ordinance. 
This wiH, no doubt, be readily done, on application made by 
the Commissioners of the fund. And your Committee 
would here respectfully suggest that the interest of this fund, 
2 



10 

with a moderate temporary aid from the city, might enable 
the Board to establish another additional professorship. 

The report of the President recommends two other mat- 
ters, in the expediency of which your Committee acquiesce. 
The one, is the appointment of a Committee of the Board 
to attend semi-annual examinations, so as to make the 
attendance of a part of 'the Board on these occasions, a 
special duty. The other is the appropriation of a small 
sum (say $50) a year to provide premiums for exercises in 
composition and elocution, in the junior and sophomore 
classes. This has proved advantageous in the senior class; 
and would doubtless prove so in these. We therefore 
recommend the adoption of both these suggestions. 

With the measures proposed for extending and improving 
the internal arrangements of the College, the committee 
naturally associate the improvement of its exterior — the 
College edifice and grounds. Your committee therefore look 
with interest to the action of Council on our memorial, now 
under reference in that body, praying an appropriation for 
the latter object. Both are important to commend the insti- 
tution to increased favor with the public, and with the stu- 
dents themselves. The Council have done much for the 
College, in discharge of the trust assumed by them under 
the act of Assembly of 1837. But your committee are 
persuaded, that it would be true economy to do more. Let 
the community once feel that interest in the College, which 
justly belongs to it, as a valuable public institution ; and it 
will become more and more instrumental in its own support. 
The College, we believe, must grow in importance and use- 
fulness, to Charleston and to the State. The connections of 
the city with the interior are increasing and extending. Its 
business, according to all reasoning from experience, will 
become larger and more various. We shall need intelligent 
and well educated men to meet the exigencies of an 
increased trade, and its concomitants. Ought not Charles- 
ton to possess every facility, by which to furnish her full 
proportion of them ? But there are hundreds of families 
in our city and in its vicinity who can, with convenience, 
give their young men, a College education at home, who 
could not without an inconvenience tempting them to deny 
it, afford to them the same benefit elsewhere. 

Your committee hope therefore, that corresponding views 
OB the part of the community will encourage them to give 



11 

that aid to our College which it so richly deserves ; and 
which it would without doubt abundantly repay. Nor need 
any apprehend that the increased prosperity of this College, 
would affect disadvantageously any other. Literary insti- 
tutions, can never be merely local interests. On the con- 
trary, by elevating the standard of education, and multi- 
plying the nujnber of well educated men, they increase the 
demand for education. And when the object is duly valued, 
all will prosper. Your committee respectfully submit the 
following resolutions, &c. 

Daniel Ravenel, ^ 

R. Post, > Committee. 

Samuel Gilman. ) 

Resolution respecting: an additional Professorship. 

Resolved, That a Committee of the Board be appointed 
to take measures for obtaining additional subscriptions to 
the proposed object ; to which end, the members of this 
Board will individually afford their co-operation. 

The Committee appointed under the foregoing resolution, 
are, 

Daniel Ravenel, 

Rev. R. Post, 

Rev. S. Oilman, 

Alonzo J. White, 

William Peronneau Finley. 

^^ A Subscription paper is in the hands of each mem- 
ber of the Committee ; and of each member of the Board of 
Trustees. A note to either authorising a subscription will be 
sufficient. 

The following is the heading of the subscription papers, 
viz: — 

Charleston, So. Ca., May 1847. 

We, the undersigned. Friends of the College of Charles- 
ton, with the view of extending its usefulness, agree to pay 
the Trustees of that College, the sums set opposite to our 
names, respectively, to raise a permanent fund, to enable 
them, the said Trustees, from the income of that fund, to add 
another Professorship, such as they may deem expedient, to 
the Faculty of that Institution; provided, that no subscrip- 



12 



tion shall be payable, unless the sum of Twenty Thousand 
Dollars be hereunto subscribed, on or before the 1st day of 
January next, (1848) ; and that if Twenty Thousand Dol- 
lars or more be hereunto subscribed, on or before the said 1st 
day of January next, then the subscriptions hereto* shall be 
payable by equal instalments, on the 1st day of January, 
1848, 1849 and 1850, or, at the option of the respective 
subscribers, at any earlier period that may be convenient. 

Board of Trustees. 

President. 
Hon. MITCHELL KING, Vice President. 
CHARLES ERASER, Esq., Secretary and Treasurer. 
Hon. T. LEGER HUTCHINSON, Mayor. 
Dr. E. W. NORTH. ) 

THOMAS F CAPERS, Esq. } Aldermen. 
ALONZO J. WHITE, Esq. ) 
Rev. Dr. BACHMAN. 
Rev. Dr. C. HANCKEL. 
Rev. Dr. GILMAN. 
Rev. Dr. POST. 
RICHARD YEADON, Esq. 
JAMES L PETIGRU, Esq. 
Hon. JAMES S. RHETT. 
Dr. THOMAS Y. SIMONS. 
CHARLES M. FURMaN, Esq. 
HENRY A. DESAUSSURE, Esq. 
DANIEL RAVENEL, Esq. 
HENRY BAILEY, Esq. 
ALEXANDER MAZYCK, Esq. 
EDWARD B. WHITE, Esq. 



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